NORTHBROOK, Ill., April 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Astellas today announced that Astellas Americas President Jim Robinson will participate in a panel entitled "Getting Our Health Priorities in Order: Prevention, Research, and Treatment" from 8 – 9:15 a.m. PT Monday, May 1 at the 20th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. The conference convenes more than 3,500 attendees from 50 countries – all senior decision-makers in their fields — to tackle the world's most stubborn challenges.

The panel will focus on the promise of medical research and public health to enhance and extend lives, exploring the full range of health interventions in support of the conference's theme of "Building Meaningful Lives." Hosted by moderator and Yahoo! Global News Anchor Katie Couric, the panel comprises Mark Alles, CEO of Celgene Corporation; Tom Beauregard, CIO of UnitedHealth Group; Linda Fried, dean and DeLamar professor of public health at Columbia University and senior vice president at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; and Eric Lefkofsky, CEO and co-founder of Tempus.

Topics for discussion will include:

Improvements in the delivery and reduction in cost of care

Collaboration between biopharma companies and governments, medical research institutions and foundations to advance treatments

Motivators that lead people to make better health decisions

Robinson's remarks will reflect his leadership focus on building a patients-first culture in healthcare. As part of that effort, Astellas is working with FasterCures and Avalere Health to develop a Patient-Perspective Value Framework Initiative to help provide a roadmap for how to measure value in a way that's meaningful to patients. Data informing the initiative, which Robinson will discuss on-site at the conference, includes:

43 percent of patients have difficulty affording their healthcare deductibles (up to 27 percent in 2015)*

Only 8 percent of quality measures reflect an emphasis on the patient; and patient satisfaction, where it is indicated, is only loosely measured**

These statistics emphasize the importance of reframing the healthcare industry to put patients first, which Astellas is attempting to do in various ways through its Patient Experience Organization, focused on accelerating innovation beyond medication to deliver improved patient experiences and outcomes; the Astellas C3 Prize, an initiative to help source non-medicine innovations to improve the care experience for individuals with cancer; and advocacy engagement such as its annual Patient Advocacy Summit and ChangeTogether.com resource.

More information on the Health Priorities panel can be found here. Photos and videos from the event will be archived on the conference website.